Thursday, 17 October 2024

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (12:45): (1167) My constituency question is for the Minister for Health. I was contacted by a constituent yesterday who was, at the time of contacting me, at the Ballarat Base Hospital seeking urgent care. This was around midday or so. They observed a number of ambulances ramped alongside the hospital, waiting to get there and unload their patients. When they were in the emergency services area, there were people literally on stretchers in hallways, and the waiting room was full. How can this be allowed to happen? Minister, how can you let this happen to our health system? Our doctors, our nurses and our emergency care people do amazing work trying to do the best they can in challenging situations, let alone our ambulance workers, who work in extremely difficult circumstances and who have had to campaign fiercely for better pay. Minister, what are you going to do to change this situation so it does not happen again?